


All is Well

by auselysium



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, epilogue re-write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 16:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3389243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auselysium/pseuds/auselysium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And for that moment, all is well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All is Well

**Author's Note:**

> A bleak little thing to counterbalance the saccharine sweetness of the epilogue. 
> 
> 700 word drabble

Harry dreads this day.

  
Saying goodbye to James these past two years has been hard enough, but now his darling Al too? He can't imagine what next year's September 1st will bring when Lily goes and their nest is officially empty.

  
James runs off with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, throwing his goodbye over his shoulder. Albus asks if he might go find Mr. Malfoy's son. Though the boys have never been friends - because the fathers never really have been either - Al has always been intrigued by Scorpius, so of course Harry obliges after a final pep-talk and a long hug. Lily, her curls especially springy today under her knit cap, pouts on the back of a bench, her chin in her fist.

  
The all aboard is called and the whistle blows, ushering in another year at Hogwarts. Harry feels the flutter of nostalgia in his chest, thinking of the adventure he knows awaits his boys. But as the steam clears and the platform empties, it makes it too easy to spot the other reason he dreads this day more than any on the calendar.

  
They are all crowded together at the end of the platform, a whole throng of them in all shapes and sizes, the sun shining off their matching red hair.

  
He watches their familiar, beloved faces and a rueful smile pulls his lips. There is an invisible wall around that close-knit group, one that he is not welcome behind. It was a wall built the day he fell in love, when he sacrificed one love for another.

  
He sees Ginny, her hair long and straight down her back. Her head lilts every so slightly towards the blond head next to her. The two women - roommates turned lovers turned mothers - are soft and gentle together and Harry has a sudden urge to run to Ginny. To thank her for how amicably their relationship had ended, for the fact that she is happy.

  
Especially when he sees her brother.

  
He stands near the edge of the group. His hair is long past his ears but thinning, turning white the temples sooner than it should. His skin is waxen beneath his freckles. He takes a final drag on his cigarette and throws it to the ground.

  
It's been a while since he's been brought in for a drunken disorderedly or petty theft, but by the state of his clothes Harry wonders if he's sleeping rough. He'll look into it when he gets back to the department.

  
They had never meant to hurt him, never realized what their betrayal would do to him until it was too late. One night when Ron was away Harry had found himself in her bed. But then one night became two. And two nights turned into two months and instead of lying to him, they told the truth. Isn't that what best friends deserve?

  
But it was the horror of Voldemort's horcrux, taunting him in the forest, finally come true. How could he not completely unravel?

  
The hand in his, slim and steady, tightens as she sees him too.

  
"He's worse than last year," Hermione says, her voice grave, . "Shouldn't we…"

  
"No," Harry says firmly. "You know that only makes him upset."

  
She wets her lips and nods.

  
They've lived their life and for the most part, they have been happy. But Harry dreads this day because he knows it makes her wonder if, in the end, what they did was all worth it.

  
"Time to go, Lil," Harry calls. Lily hops off the bench, slipping between them and breaking their hands apart so she can have one of each. Hermione brushes her hair with a small smile.

  
"I love you, you know," he says looking at the delicate skin around his wife's eyes that reveal every bit of her distress.

  
Her shoulders relax. "I know," she nods. "I love you, too."

  
"Come on," Harry says, tugging at his daughter's hand.

  
Lily hangs back for a moment then runs forward, kicking her feet so she can swing between them. For a moment, Harry's ears are filled with the elated giggles of his daughter. And for that moment, all is well.


End file.
